Friday, September 28, 2012

There's nothing like an impending festival or market to get the creative space humming!
And I have been in full production, making batches of things.
I know it's not really very creative, but these will help to pay for the stall space (not cheap!)

I made a whole bunch of pendants.
Here are the Alice in Wonderland ones -

I also have some Paris themed pendants, steampunk inspired and some cute ones with birds and flowers.

But earrings are my bread and butter, and what I really, really enjoy making.
Unfortunatley my right hand decided to seize up, making holding pliers too difficult (very inconvenient!) so I had to let these sit for a while.

Instead I reckoned I could do some glueing! (I can hear you all rolling your eyes!)
When I was in Sydney a couple of weeks ago I visited The Button Shop in The Rocks - in fact it was conveniently just behind our hotel, when we stayed here.
Picked up some sweet little buttons to make some stud earrings with.

Here they are all ready to go -

Then suddenly I am all out of stock of glass drop earrings.
My hand isn't too bad today so I reckon I can do a bit of wire wrapping.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Have you ever said "yes" to something and then wondered why the heck did I do that?

Well that was me this week.

I have got roped into a dragon boat race and although it's for a very good cause*, afterwards I thought "can I do this?" "what about my sore hand?" "will I make something else sore?" "will I make a fool of myself?"

Well, of course if you thought like that all the time, you'd never go anywhere, or do anything!

This morning was a free come-and-try-it at my local regatta centre (that is one thing I am very grateful to the Sydney Olympics for!) where a good deal of dragon boating goes on.

When I got there there were a lot of people in bright club tshirts and their own special paddles and of course they all new each other.
Then there were us newbies in civvies standing around awkwardly like 7th graders on the first day of high school.
Anyway once things got going they moved at a cracking pace, we were given a safety talk, signed some forms, got in a boat and away we went!

Well it was more fun than I can explain!
Then we had a race with 4 other boats and we won! And we reached a top speed of 12.7 knots!
Are you impressed?

It's on again tomorrow and I'd love to go but it's dear daughter's birthday lunch, and anyway I'm not 100% sure that I won't be a wee bit sore tomorrow.

But I'm hanging out for my next practise.

*The good cause is Dragons Abreast Australia which is an education and support group for breast cancer patients and survivors.
The teams in this dragon boat festival pledge to raise at least $2000 per boat for this amazing cause.
If you'd like to sponsor my team in the dragon boat festival on 28th pop over to my team page.
You can donate anonymously if you like.

Or maybe you'd like to join in this event is in Sydney, but there are teams from other parts of Australia taking part.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Actually the main reason for my shopping trip was to get some chain - so that mission was successful!

Oh, yes - and some more bits of brightness!
Delicious - yes?

A while ago I had some cute beads which I made into sweet little earrings....then I lost them, sadly.
So while I was in Sydney last week I just happened to pop into the button shop in the rocks and picked up some more.
Can't wait to get these turned into stud earrings.

Meanwhile back at the workbench - I created some simple silver pendant necklaces.
Next I need to make some gold and brass ones ready for my next market >>>>>>>>

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Have you heard of the French photographer Eugene Atget?
I must admit that I had never heard of him until I went to an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales last week.
I love old photographs and Paris is eminently photogenic - so it was a must see for me!
And was I blown away!

Atget photographed the streets of Paris between 1898 and 1927 when Paris was being radically remodelled and modernised.
Many of his subjects no longer exist having been demolished to make way for the wide boulevards and parks, metro and stations of the new modern Paris.

Atget is most famous for his street scenes which depict a way of life to shortly disappear - the small shops and businesses, the street vendors, the courtyards and alleyways.

Because of the type of camera he used which needed long exposure times some of his photos show delightful blurry effects from people who are moving with an almost ghostlike appearance.

Or he would work in scenes without people to limit the moving - these make Paris seem like a ghost town.

Here we can see the photographer underneath the cloth that covers his camera reflected in the grand mirror.

Many of the photographs remind me of places that exist in countries I have travelled to recently - strangely reminescent of parts of India, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Even the pictures of the street traders have their counterparts.

It seems that Atget was actually a very influential photographer and is still inspiring people today - there are flickr groups dedicated to Atget hommage - here and here.